“Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon A.A. unity.”
“Each member of Alcoholics Anonymous is but a small part of a great whole. A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.”
Our whole A.A. program is securely founded on the principle of humility–that is to say, perspective. Which implies, among other things, that we relate ourselves rightly to God and to our fellows; that we each see ourselves as we really are–”a small part of a great whole.” Seeing our fellows thus, we shall enjoy group harmony. That is why A.A. Tradition can confidently state, “Our common welfare comes first.”
“Does this mean,” some will ask, “that in A.A. the individual doesn’t count too much? Is he to be swallowed up, dominated by the group?”
No, it doesn’t seem to work out that way. Perhaps there is no society on earth more solicitous of personal welfare, more careful to grant the individual the greatest possible liberty of belief and action. Alcoholics Anonymous has no “musts.” Few A.A. groups impose penalties on anyone for non-conformity. We do suggest, but we don’t discipline. Instead, compliance or non-compliance with any principle of A.A. is a matter for the conscience of the individual; he is the judge of his own conduct. Those words of old time, “Judge not,” we observe most literally.
“But,” some will argue, “if A.A. has no authority to govern its individual members or groups, how shall it ever be sure that the common welfare does come first? How is it possible to be governed without a government? If everyone can do as he pleases, how can you have aught but anarchy?”
The answer seems to be that we A.A.s cannot really do as we please, though there is no constituted human authority to restrain us. Actually, our common welfare is protected by powerful safeguards. The moment any action seriously threatens the common welfare, group opinion mobilizes to remind us; our conscience begins to complain. If one persists, he may become so disturbed as to get drunk; alcohol gives him a beating. Group opinion shows him that he is off the beam, his own conscience tells him that he is dead wrong, and, if he goes too far, Barleycorn brings him real conviction.
So it is we learn that in matters deeply affecting the group as a whole, “our common welfare comes first.” Rebellion ceases and cooperation begins because it must; we have disciplined ourselves.
Eventually, of course, we cooperate because we really wish to; we see that without substantial unity there can be no A.A., and that without A.A. there can be little lasting recovery for anyone. We gladly set aside personal ambitions whenever these might harm A.A. We humbly confess that we are but “a small part of a great whole.”
~ Bill W.
Reprinted with permission from
The A.A. Grapevine, December, 1947
Happy New Year! At your Central Office, we are bringing in the New Year with some changes to our Board of Trustees and Standing Chair positions. In November and December the Central Office representatives voted to replace the outgoing Board positions and Standing Chair positions. I will serve as Chair, Wendy W. as Co Chair, Meg G. as Trustee, Betty H. as Trustee and Mike O. as Alternate Trustee while Kent S., Adam U., Jeremy C. and Rich W. will return for one more year! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Chair, Nick R. and Trustees, Kimmie S., Al L. and Sean B. We will benefit from their contributions for a long time. We were able to amend our bylaws and implement those changes successfully and without much turmoil because of their commitment and desire to create a successful, service oriented Central Office.
One of the major amendments to the bylaws was the addition of the Standing Committees. We’ve had a full year of active involvement from those committees. These committees were designed to plan and implement all the services that Central Office offers. This allows AA members the opportunity to get involved and provide service to our community. Here’s a little review of what the Committees accomplished this year:
The Archives Committee was approved after the bylaws were amended and Meg G. led that committee to go through the task of sorting through old papers, Grapevines, books, pictures, tapes, ad infinitum. We now have Grapevines catalogued and available from the 1950’s to current issues. Digital copies of old speaker tapes were made and are available at the office and online. Please come by and view their hard work. John N. will be assuming the position of Archives Standing Chair and if you’d like to participate, please call Central Office for his contact information.
Shar C. led the Activities Committee with the help of Kimmie S. This committee has the responsibility of planning our fellowship events during the year. Thanks to these ladies, Joel and Penny R. and many more that helped with our picnic, garage sale, chili cook off, etc. The Standing Chair position is open for this year Happy New Year! At your Central Office, we are bringing in the New Year with some changes to our Board of Trustees and Standing Chair positions. In November and December the Central Office representatives voted to replace the outgoing Board positions and Standing Chair positions. I will serve as Chair, Wendy W. as Co Chair, Meg G. as Trustee, Betty H. as Trustee and Mike O. as Alternate Trustee while Kent S., Adam U., Jeremy C. and Rich W. will return for one more year! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Chair, Nick R. and Trustees, Kimmie S., Al L. and Sean B. We will benefit from their contributions for a long time. We were able to amend our bylaws and implement those changes successfully and without much turmoil because of their commitment and desire to create a successful, service oriented Central Office.
One of the major amendments to the bylaws was the addition of the Standing Committees. We’ve had a full year of active involvement from those committees. These committees were designed to plan and implement all the services that Central Office offers. This allows AA members the opportunity to get involved and provide service to our community. Here’s a little review of what the Committees accomplished this year:
The Archives Committee was approved after the bylaws were amended and Meg G. led that committee to go through the task of sorting through old papers, Grapevines, books, pictures, tapes, ad infinitum. We now have Grapevines catalogued and available from the 1950’s to current issues. Digital copies of old speaker tapes were made and are available at the office and online. Please come by and view their hard work. John N. will be assuming the position of Archives Standing Chair and if you’d like to participate, please call Central Office for his contact information.
Shar C. led the Activities Committee with the help of Kimmie S. This committee has the responsibility of planning our fellowship events during the year. Thanks to these ladies, Joel and Penny R. and many more that helped with our picnic, garage sale, chili cook off, etc. The Standing Chair position is open for this year. If you would like to stand for the position, please come to the Rep meeting on January 8th at 6:30 pm at Central Office
The Bylaws Committee was led by Linda B. and she will continue serving in this position. The Bylaws Committee has the responsibility of overseeing review and changes to the current Bylaws. It is a tedious job but Linda takes it on with gusto!
Another important function of our Central Office is the Hotline. This phone service is available 24/7 for people searching for a solution, a meeting, a ride to a meeting and contacts. Volunteers answer the phone during office hours but, after office hours, our goal is to have alcoholics living in the solution answer those calls rather than an answering service. Tim H. organized the effort this year and did a great job. Melinda A. will be taking over for Tim – if you’d like to give her a hand, please call Central Office for her contact information.
Doug R. has been the editor of our newsletter, The LIFELINE, for the past 3 years and has done an incredible job. His attention to detail and dedication to a quality publication will provide an easy transition for Gina F. She will chair the Newsletter Committee for the New Year. Doug will continue to serve Central Office as the Volunteer Coordinator on Fridays and as a resource to our newsletter. Once again, please contact Central Office if you would like to help out with the newsletter.
If you’ve been to Central Office lately you will have noticed some big changes in our literature stock. While we have many new titles and are always stocked, our prices have been reduced across the board to better serve the needs of our members and groups. Chris H. has been responsible for all of our strides made in this area. He will continue on as our Literature Chair for the New Year. He is always in need of help during inventory.
Wendy W. led the Outreach Committee this year. Her committee has worked extremely hard at contacting our groups listed on our meeting schedule to ensure they are open and represented at Central Office. This is important, especially to newcomers, that a meeting listed on the schedule is there. The All Groups meeting commenced this year, as well. Groups from around the valley sign up to host a meeting and provide a potluck dinner. All Groups meets on the 3rd Saturday of the month at 6 pm and it’s a great way to meet people from different groups and share the message. Wendy also has a teleconference meeting once a month with our Delegate and other Central Offices in the state of Utah to enhance communication with all branches of service. She will serve Central Office as Co Chair and the Area as Secretary. The Outreach Standing Chair position for the New Year is open.
The reason Central Office has been able to operate on less money and provide more services is in large part due to the volunteers. Central Office is staffed by all volunteers. We have a paid bookkeeper that comes in for a couple of hours each day to ensure our books are up to date and our bills are paid. Karen S. does an awesome job. But, everything else is done by volunteers. Betty H. chaired the first ever Volunteer Committee and we owe great thanks to her for getting us started on the path of self-support. Betty will serve on the Board this year as Trustee and Susan L. will assume her responsibilities as Volunteer Chair. Please contact Central Office if you are interested in service in this capacity.
Last, but certainly, not least is our Website Committee. Jonathan H. has totally reinvented our website to provide easy access to meeting schedules and information pertinent to alcoholics in the area, as well as, nationally. Please visit our website at www.saltlakeaa.org. Jonathan will serve us again this year as our webservant. If you have any talents to give in this area, please contact Jonathan at [email protected]
If you have any questions and/or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]
Once again, Happy New Year!
Christy R.
Chairperson, Board of Trustees
Hello friends of the Fellowship, I’m a happy member of the Acceptance group of A.A. I’m thrilled to be living sober and serving as a part of this miracle we call Alcoholics Anonymous. I was asked to share my experience, strength, and hope regarding step 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. Here’s how it happened for me.
I tried alcohol when I was ten years old. Some friends and I got into his mother’s liquor that she had under the sink. It was vodka and whiskey. I can’t remember everything that happened, but I recall laughing a lot while talking with a religious leader who rarely laughed. At 13 I found a bottle of whiskey left over from a party that I hid in my drawer. Again, I can’t remember everything that happened, but I recall laughing, jumping around on my bed, falling down a lot, and waking up, naked and bruised. 14-17 was a lot of alcohol, weed, laughing and jumping around, more nakedness, more bruises, cops, handcuffs, upset parents, more drinking, more cops, more upset parents, some legal fees, and then some sobriety while I did some service for the popular religious organization in Utah.
I returned from my religious service in a foreign land believing that I would live happily ever after, but that didn’t happen. My curiosity found alcohol again. I was without defense. I took one drink, and it turned into thousands thereafter. Again, there was the laughter, jumping around, nakedness, bruises, close calls with the cops, upset parents, bars, parties etc. . . It was during this time that I found the courage to look inside myself and see that I was homosexual, and that the religion I was raised with was not the one for me. That was a painful experience filled with tears and mixed emotions. My understanding of life, God, and happiness twisted and shattered. Alcohol consumed me. I drank, I partied, I raved, I sobbed in anger, bitterness, and sorrow. Then there was a deep emptiness. I would drink and laugh at parties, but inside I felt so far away – so alone. I would wake up in the night drunk and crying not knowing why I was crying. There was no joy left in drinking.
I couldn’t stop drinking. I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t. This perplexed me, made me laugh a little bit, and then it scared me. I was in something worse than a bad situation. Deep inside I knew it. I contacted a friend and told her what was happening to me. She shared her story with me and I knew that she knew exactly what I was talking about. Her honesty exposed me to the cold fact that I have a progressive disease, and that it will kill me if I drink. I dumped the remainder of my booze, sobered up at her place for a few days, got introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous, and I haven’t had a drink since.
Alcoholics Anonymous has presented me with a way to live happily without drinking. I don’t ever have to drink again, and I don’t want to. I work the steps and they work for me. I have respectfully set aside the religion of my up-bringing. I am content with the sexuality I have been given. I cherish a flexible understanding of Higher Powers, I enjoy a beautiful life today and I owe it to the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not. Reach out in humility, and you too will be rocketed into the fourth dimension of living.
The Acceptance Group
361 North 300 West SLC
Sundays 3:00pm
In September of 2011, Christy R, Nick R and I went to the annual Central Office/Intergroup/AAWS/AA Grapevine Seminar in Tucson, AZ. We thought there might be some answers for the questions we were hearing at the Salt Lake Central Office. Our then Central Office manager was not going to attend the event, and we felt attendance could be beneficial to the Salt Lake Central Office.
We found the Seminar to be a 3-day whirlwind of information and discussion, most of it relevant to our topics of concern. We appreciated the presence of GSO and the Grapevine, we met our Central Office/GSO contact, Jim K and our GSO office manager, Phyllis H. We met many people from all over the country, doing what we do. We left there a little puzzled (and bruised) by the refusal of the Seminar to share with us their wealth of information contained in a database that was accessible to “office managers only.”
We returned home and discussed our experience, wondering what happens next. Since we each paid for the trip out-of-pocket, it wasn’t likely that we would be attending another Seminar. We had no access to the database. We wanted to continue having a venue of discussion with other Central Office/Intergroups. We considered the five Central Office/Intergroups in Utah and the idea to hold our own “Seminar” was born.
The Outreach Committee at Salt Lake Central Office began preparation for a “gathering” in Salt Lake City. An invitation went out from the Salt Lake Central Office to the Ogden Central Office, Cache Valley Intergroup, Utah Valley Central Office, Dixie Central Office and the Utah Area 69 Delegate to attend the five hour gathering, with a request for topics of discussion. The response was overwhelmingly positive with acceptance from all invitees.
We met on a Saturday in mid-March, had a wonderful 5-hour discussion about various issues and topics, exchanged phone numbers and emails and left contented, but wondering what happens next?
Erin B, office manager for the Cache Valley Intergroup, was very inspired by the event. She was particularly interested in more contact with Area 69 and requested funding from her Intergroup to attend the next Assembly. The Intergroup did not approve the expenditure. Erin called GSO and talked to our contact, Jim at the group-services desk, to see if there was anything in the collective consciousness about her predicament. Jim told her of a conference call that had been started in Maryland that kept the Central Offices connected, and the Area also took part in the call.
Erin spoke with the moderator, Cynthia T, and learned that the call had been going on for a year or so and they were having great success with it. Erin and I were invited to join one of their calls. I was amazed at the amount of information that passed between the attendees: announcements of upcoming events, follow-up on previously planned events, and reports from the delegate and each of the offices.
Erin was very excited about the possibility of having a conference call here in Utah with the attendees from the previous gathering. I was very excited at the thought of maintaining continuity, an annual event seemed a little sparse. We have issues, people. Erin created an account on a free web service that allows unlimited numbers of callers and can record the conversation for those who might have missed it. The invitations went out and we waited.
The first Utah Central Office/Intergroup monthly conference call was held on September 26, 2012. Cynthia graciously accepted our invitation to attend and gave an opening presentation of the experience, strength and hope of her Area and Intergroups. She had many valuable insights as the call went on. We really appreciate her kindness, and her willingness to stay up well past bed time. On the east coast, she joined the call at 10pm! Our Area delegate was on the call, even though the attendance doesn’t indicate he was there (sorry Keith!), and we are very grateful for his strong interest and support of the central offices and intergroups in Utah. He was very grateful to be able to attend in his pajamas.
We had a great meeting full of interesting topics and some ground-rule setting. It was discovered through this call that there were many events coming up in the following month that may have been better planned if we had been in contact with each other. I’m looking forward to the growth and effectiveness of the conference call. It’s available to anyone who is interested in attending, contact [email protected] for the call-in number.
In loving service,
Wendy W.
Salt Lake Central Office Outreach Chair
[email protected]
“A.A., as such, ought never be organized.” And as the long form of tradition nine suggests, “Rotating leadership is the best.”
Every service position I’ve ever held has brought a new awareness of the multifaceted aspects of this Fellowship that we call Alcoholics Anonymous. At the end of the two year commitment I am always ready to rotate out and move on to something new. That usually happens just when I begin to feel like I know what I’m supposed to be doing! That is part of the beauty of rotation, the necessity of rotation. If I continue more than a two year commitment the position becomes mine, rather than me serving it, it would serve me. It would become totally backwards and upside down. I’ve seen that happen more than once with predictable results.
Besides it’s exciting to see ‘new blood’ come in and not only bring new energy and direction, but to experience the same blessings of growth and understanding that I have. It is exciting to see. I’ve heard people grumble, “Rotation isn’t the same people rotating through the various jobs.” To them I say, “Be the change you want to see. Stand for one of those Board of Trustee positions or Standing Committees. If you don’t it will be the same dedicated people joyfully serving the Fellowship that has saved their lives.”
My service sponsor told me that, “Service is gratitude in action.” I love that, as well as the statement that, “God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.” My only addition to that last statement is to be sure you’re called and not just, “well I meet the minimum requirements to stand.”
We truly are blessed to have this Fellowship, the Steps of recovery, the Service structure and all these wonderful people! A.A. not only saved my life but it continues to give me a life worth living.
Doug R.
Newsletter Chair
Just one last time, I promise then I’ll change. My father glaring back at me holding back every tear in his heart, I was barely legal to pick up the bottle. That was the day I broke the heart of a person I always looked up to and dreamt of being. I had lost who I was. I was so afraid to fix this and thought I did not deserve that opportunity from all the hurt I had caused this world. But the same person I turned away helped pick me back up when I reached my hand out.
That was several years ago. Now after bettering who I am and being able to look the “world in the eye” by taking the steps, I have a relationship beyond measure with my father. I accepted my lessons and capitalized on that, through actions and not words for the first time in my life. Spirituality saved my life and I have learned to trust it to the best of my abilities. I owe my relationship that I have with my father today to all those individuals who lent their time to me on my journey.
Not only has the fellowship and program (12 steps, service, meetings) changed my current/old behaviors, but I have also been able to see my father change alongside me. To see love fill someone’s heart is beyond words, its priceless. I was so grateful for an answer to my chaos and I found that in the Big Book, it was the first time I could sit and enjoy all of me.
My life is about learning today and that is what I strive to do to the best of my ability. Before I believed I was on my own and had to figure it out, hard knock life. When I first came in, I was told to give it just one year, one year was not enough as I did not think AA would work for me, I was hopeless. Now I have the opportunity to be an example to younger individuals all around me and they are an example for me (Thanks Flava).
The gift about it all is really that I do not know anything about staying sober nor do I have the answer, but I have the happiness to show that it works. “Carry the message to other alcoholics” was the only requirement of my sponsor; it has been that simple when I open my eyes and ears with trust and a little love. I heard this early on and it has stuck with me every since “How many people you bless is how you measure success” and “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.” Small things changed my life by being “All In.” Thank you for this blessing of the second breath I have been given, I am forever grateful for you all.
Mario D.
Translator
